The Legend of Zelda: Golden Dawn
by Cameron.007
Summary: A gritty tale of friendship, love, jealousy, betrayal... and revenge. Prepare yourself for a swashbuckling adventure story of fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, and miracles. Doesn't sound too bad, now does it? So try to stay awake...


**Prologue: The Decline of Hyrule**

The decline of the Kingdom of Hyrule into dissolution didn't happen overnight. The Golden Land of the Goddesses had for so long been blessed with prosperity and peace that its inhabitants began to take their fortunes for granted. The benevolent king, who sought not for power nor control, proved inexperienced and inadequate to reverse the disintegration of his realm. The rivalries and prejudice of his client states, the Zora and Goron nations, spiraled out of control to bitter strife, trade wars, border disputes, and eventually bloodshed. Both had come under the rule of a proud and nationalistic leader who wanted nothing to do with the other race, and certainly nothing to do with the hegemonic influence of Hyrule.

When these relationships broke down to hostilities, it became evident that the king of Hyrule was unable to stop the Zoran and Goron aggressions and the citizens of Hyrule turned to anyone who could offer them safety and chance of retaliation. The Barons, the provincial governors, filled the vacuum left by their king. By promising protection for military service, the barons installed a feudal system and became incredibly powerful. Though mostly working independently of each other, the barons not only were able to repel the Zora and Goron forces from Hylian lands, but also subdue and seal them away in their own domains by means of a magic barrier.

At the end of the Zora-Goron War, the king of Hyrule feared that the barons would not easily relinquish their new found power nor disband their armies. These worries were confirmed when the barons began to dispute among themselves about territory gained from the vanquished creatures. Negotiations failed, royal edicts were ignored, and feuds became bloody. Why should these barons and their brave men, who had fought so many victorious battles, give in to another province? And with what will the impotent king enforce his decrees? Such notions dragged Hyrule into civil war, each baron with his armies vying for dominion of what each believed was rightfully theirs.

Although intolerant of each other, the barons could agree on one thing – the king had to be deposed. On Friday the 13th, the king, whose health had been failing, awoke to see all seven baron armies amassing on the fields outside the walls of Castle Town, thus forever marking that day as a very unlucky one. An agreement was made that the king would surrender himself on the morrow if the barons promised to not harm the castle personnel or the people of Castle Town. That night the king suffered a stroke and died. The next day, when the seven barons came to retrieve the aged king, they found him lying in state in the Great Hall. A sudden realization dawned on them all – the throne was up for grabs.

A melee ensued. The barons wrestled, grabbed, and pulled each other as they raced to mobilize their armies and overtake the gaping, defenseless Hyrule Castle – the symbol of dominance. The slaughter that followed was immense. All hell broke loose on the fields when the barons gave the order to advance as the seven armies fought each other to gain the entrance. The bodies of their dead filled the moat around Castle Town so that the water flooded the plains, turning fertile pastures into a swampy, bloody mire. Once inside the walls of the city, and contrary to the agreement, Castle Town was sacked and its inhabitants were massacred in the fray. Hyrule Castle, being built on the bluffs overlooking the massive Lake Hylia, was a formidable monolith. With only one side for land forces to advance from, the narrowing path made it difficult for the warring factions to progress upwards to its gates.

The Sheikah, the guardians of the Royal Bloodline since days of antiquity, evacuated the remaining castle servants through the tunnels and caverns beneath the edifice to small boats awaiting to take them to safety. With no Royal family to protect – the king being a widower and not having any children – the Sheikah made a solemn oath to protect the king's body from desecration. After they had closed and locked every entrance to the castle, the Sheikah sealed themselves in by casting an incantation on each door leading to the outside. By spilling their own blood in the ritual, they ensured that only someone of the same blood, Sheikah blood, could unlock their barrier and gain access to the castle. Hyrule Castle, which the Sheikah had so valiantly defended for generations, now became their tomb.

When the wearied and decimated troops of the barons finally made it up to the castle entrance, they found the draw bridge pulled up with the Sheikah's Weeping Eye emblazoned on it, as if painted with blood. Discovering the prize they had fought so brutally for to be impossible to achieve, a demoralizing spirit swept through all the men. An uneasy truce settled upon the baron armies as they trudged away, passing the mounds of their countless dead, each baron leading a disheartened procession of broken men. The barons withdrew to their own lands, the castle survivors drifted away, Hyrule Castle was inaccessible, the last of the Sheikah consigned themselves to death within its walls, and the Royal Bloodline came to an end. The Hylian Dark Ages had begun.

**The Dark Ages**

The Hylian Dark Ages was a period of Hyrule Historia where there was no centralized power, government, or authority, with Hyrule being divided into seven different factions. The socio-economic system of the time was feudalism. Barons, lords, and dukes reigned over their provinces and lands, each promising their subjects safety and security in exchange for military service. A never ending power struggle was waged between the competing rulers. Political alliances were forged and broken continually. None were powerful enough to overtake the others and none were too weak to be overcome. Thieves and bandits infested the borders of the land, thus interprovincial highways went unkempt and commercial intercourse between the provinces halted. These factors only made the people rely more heavily on their feudal lords for protection. Art and literature declined, technology regressed, only the nobles were taught in the ways of magic, and people had shorter life spans. With such devastation wrought upon the land of Hyrule (for it was no longer known as a kingdom), its international allies suffered and became weak as well. A new power rose in the east; beyond the mountainous ranges, endless plains, profound canyons, and eternal deserts, the Gerudo were emerging as the dominant geo-political force of the world. Hyrule's loss was their gain, easily conquering and annexing Hyrule's former allies, partners, and client states the Gerudo expanded their empire right to the steps of Hyrule itself.

It is important to note that the Hylian people of this age held within their hearts a desperate hope – that a hero will rise to unite Hyrule once more. Although the old legends of a courageous knight and a wise princess were derided as children's stories by the people at large, it was not uncommon for the nobles to name their firstborn son or daughter Link and Zelda, respectively. Whether these children had any drop of legendary or royal blood in them was irrelevant; the people secretly and earnestly looked forward to their saviors, and many hoped it would be their own child.

Thus three-hundred years passed since the death of the last Hylian king and the splintering of the kingdom. The land of Hyrule was in perpetual turmoil and strife, the Gerudo Empire began making incursions into the borderlands, and the people steadfastly awaited a hero. And we begin our story…

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><p><strong>Hello and welcome all who have made it this far, who have embarked on this journey with me!<strong>

**Just a couple of things to point out, principally that this is my first fanfic piece so if it seems choppy with the chapter titles, headings, pictures, and all the idiosyncrasies of our chosen medium (i.e. ), please be patient with me as I learn the features. I might have to redo this a couple times, so if you like the story then click to Follow me and you'll be in on all the updates I do.**

**Something else to consider is that I am in law school so if updates are slow in coming you'll know that it's not from boredom of this story. Also, if it seems like this prologue was just exposition, that's because my mind works in exposition much better and faster than it does in narrative. In fact, I basically have the entire storyline complete in my head and almost half outlined, but putting it in a novel format so it's entertaining for a reader is always a challenge for me. So when you read my forthcoming chapters, please review and let me know what you think I need to improve.**

**Thank you all and I look forward to your review!**


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